Anche in America c'è melamina nel latte atificiale, e da noi?

FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals In Baby Formula
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff WriterThursday, November 27, 2008; A02
Public health groups, consumer advocates and members of Congress blasted the Food and Drug Administration yesterday for failing to act after discovering trace amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula sold in the United States.
"This FDA, this Bush administration, instead of protecting the public health, is protecting industry," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA budget. In an interview, DeLauro said she wants the agency to disclose its findings and to develop a plan to remove melamine from formula. "We're talking about babies, about the most vulnerable. This really makes me angry."
The FDA found melamine and cyanuric acid, a related chemical, in samples of baby formula made by major U.S. manufacturers. Melamine can cause kidney and bladder stones and, in worst cases, kidney failure and death. If melamine and cyanuric acid combine, they can form round yellow crystals that can also damage kidneys and destroy renal function.
Melamine was found in Good Start Supreme Infant Formula With Iron made by Nestle, and cyanuric acid was detected in Enfamil Lipil With Iron infant formula powder made by Mead Johnson. A spokesman for Nestle did not respond to repeated calls and e-mails for comment yesterday.
Gail Wood, a spokeswoman for Mead Johnson, said the company does not think that cyanuric acid poses a health threat to infants. "Cyanuric acid is approved by the FDA to sanitize processing equipment," she said. "The risks of not sanitizing equipment are far greater than ultra trace amounts of residual cyanuric acid found in the formula."
The FDA has been testing hundreds of food products for melamine in the aftermath of a scandal this year involving Chinese infant formula tainted with melamine. Chinese manufacturers deliberately added the chemical to watered-down formula to make it appear to contain higher levels of protein. More than 50,000 Asian infants were hospitalized, and at least four died.
The FDA collected 87 samples of infant formula made by American manufacturers, tested all but 10 of them and held a conference call Monday with manufacturers to alert them to the preliminary findings, FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon said. She said she did not know when the agency was planning to inform the public.
The test results were unearthed by the Associated Press, which had filed a request for records under the Freedom of Information Act.
Leon said that the amounts discovered are safe and that parents should continue to feed formula to their children. "We know that trace levels do not pose a risk whatsoever," she said.
That contradicts the agency's recent statements about melamine, including a position paper that was on its Web site yesterday that asserted there are no safe levels of melamine for infants. "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns," the document said.
Agency scientists have maintained they could not set a safe level of melamine exposure for babies because they do not understand the effects of long-term exposure on a baby's developing kidneys. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that infant formula is a baby's sole source of food for many months. Premature infants absorb an especially large dose of the chemical, compared with full-term babies.
"Just one month ago, the FDA had been very clear about how they could not set a safe level of melamine in formula for babies," said Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. "Now they're saying trace levels are no problem. What changed?"
The FDA thinks the melamine and cyanuric acid got into the U.S. formula as a byproduct of manufacturing and not as a result of tampering, Leon said. Melamine is found in plastic food packaging and in cleaning solutions that are sometimes used in food processing equipment.
The FDA spokeswoman said no illnesses have been linked to melamine consumption in the United States.
But Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, said that may not be true. "Given that this is not a problem that American doctors are used to dealing with, we can't be sure that if a small number of these cases developed, the connection would be made," said Halloran, who wants the formulas to be recalled from store shelves. "We just don't know."
Halloran said it is also possible some babies are receiving a variety of infant formula and could be ingesting melamine in one bottle and cyanuric acid in another bottle, creating a dangerous mix.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who is on the House Commerce and Energy Committee, is also seeking a recall. "Until they establish a safety standard, how can they say what's safe?" he said. "They need to pull this."
Critics said the FDA's reassurances about products carry less weight after the recent controversy over bisphenol-A, a chemical found in plastic baby bottles, dinnerware and the linings of food cans. The FDA dismissed a growing body of scientific evidence that has linked BPA to health problems even as worried consumers stopped buying BPA-containing products. Instead, the FDA relied on two industry-funded studies that concluded that BPA did not pose a health risk. Last month, the agency's science advisory board said the agency should no longer maintain that BPA is safe.
"When FDA claims there isn't any reason to worry, that's exactly what the consumer should do," said Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group. "The once-revered public health agency has morphed into a taxpayer-funded public relations arm for the very industries it was created to oversee."

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Gently Borne Midwifery Services Home
Mothers Milk Soap
The Most Precious Soap in the World!
by Casey Makelaoriginally published in Birth Gazette - Summer 1999
I love to make soap and I have been making it and teaching classes about it for almost as long as I've been a midwife! My research into the process and success in making specialty milk soaps led me to write a book about it entitled - "Milk-Based Soaps". I had a great time writing "Milk-Based Soaps" which was published in 1997. I was able to share my techniques for soap making and meet many wonderful people as a result. I now get letters and phone calls from folks around the world finally having success making such unique soap. It is a bit more challenging to make than just regular soap. I was not, however, able to include some of my more exotic soap recipes, including one of my favorites - Mothers milk Soap. My editor and publisher felt some of them were just too radical! It was too bad but I have them compiled into another manuscript getting ready for publication anyway...you know how we midwives can be about being radical!! For those of you who have ever considered making soap or if you make soap already, I thought I'd share with you my recipe for Mothering Soap so you can enjoy it too, or pass it along to someone else. The following recipe will make some of the most wonderful and precious soap you will ever use. And, it will last a long, long time because it makes about 8 pounds, or 32 bars if you use the kind of molds I do. This soap is for personal, not commercial use. I would like to caution you about the issue of bio-hazards if you decide to work with someone else's breast milk for soap making. Please be responsible and use precautions when handling raw, unpasteurized human milk. Before you start this project, make sure you have enough milk!! It will take time to accumulate it all but you can do it!! You will need to pump and store your milk in the freezer until you have at least one cup or as much as 6 cups. Add a little beer to your diet, it might help production! This milk does not have to be pasteurized...and its condition once thawed can be variable, don't worry about that! **Please do not use colostrum. Your baby needs it all, that is liquid gold so don't sell your babe short. A good time to start collecting milk for this project would be about a month after you have established breast feeding. Your important infant/mother bond comes first!! Have fun!
Mothers Milk Soap Recipe32 (4-ounce) barsRecipe: 3 lbs. vegetable shortening17 ounces dark olive oil18 ounces Safflower oil6 cups thawed breast milk (you can use any amount of breast milk you like and substitute the rest,just make sure your total fluid volume reaches 6 cups).12 ounces pure sodium hydroxide (lye - Red Devil brand works)1 ounce Borax2 TLBS honey1 ounce Essential oil - optionalIce Cubes
Tool List:Stainless steel pansWooden or stainless steel spoonsNewspaper to cover counter topsCandy thermometerMeasuring cupScaleBlender***Wear Gloves and protective eye-wear when making soap...lye burns!!****Use only stainless steel pans for making soap - DO NOT use aluminum!!
ProcedureMelt the veg. shortening in a sauce pan (about 8 quart size)and add the oils. Bring temp up slowly until the shortening is all melted. Don't over heat or scorch the oils. Plug your kitchen sink. Fill half way with water and add about 3 dozen ice cubes. Put thawed cold breast milk in a sauce pan (about 3 quart size). Place the sauce pan into the water. You *must* keep the milk cool when you add the lye to it or the lye will burn it and make it unusable, not to mention real stinky! Slowly stir in the sodium hydroxide (lye) stirring constantly and occasionally circulating the outer ice water. The lye is going to heat the milk up as you stir it in. Avoid breathing the fumes by working in a well ventilated area. Adding the lye should take at least 5 minutes, any faster and you will burnout your milk. If you accidentally splash any on yourself, rinse immediately! Once combined, continue to stir the milk/lye mixture for just a few more minutes (3) and then remove from the water bath and set aside. You will notice that the milk/lye mixture steadily becomes yellowish in color. That is normal. Add the honey and borax to your melted oil which should still be warm but not hot (115 degrees or so). Now, slowly and carefully pour the milk/lye mixture into the pan of oil. Stir constantly until it is all mixed together. This mixture must now be whipped in a blender (2/3's full at a time for safety sake). Run the blender (with the lid on) at whip speed for 60 seconds each time. Pour off into a clean pan. Repeat the blender process a second time. This is when you will add your essential oils. Once the mixture has been blended twice, it will be ready to pour into a mold where it will saponify and be ready to cut after 24 hours. **Make sure to set a few bars secretly aside for that someday when it could make a touching "Treasured Memory Gift" maybe when your child is all grown up. The soap will never go rancid (no matter what you may have read elsewhere), it will only improve with age. Mothering Soap has the unique potential of becoming something extra, special as the years roll by. But that's just this mothers thought! NOTE: The heavy duty molds I use for soap making are made of extruded vinyl. They are reusable and very easy to use - once it saponifies, you just slice the soap into bars, no fuss. These molds and many other soapmaking supplies are available at the Soap Shoppe page located at my Natural Soap Site -

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